X-Message-Number: 29579
From: 
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:16:58 EDT
Subject: Religious topics

In response to Rudy Hoffman, Billy Seidel, Bob Ettinger, David Stodolsky, and 
others who have posted,

I have to come down on Bob Ettinger's side on this debate.  We gain nothing 
for cryonics by debating religion.  If your interest is strictly in debating 
whether or not there is a god or gods and whether some religion is true or 

false, I would suggest that is not a useful topic here.  Cryonics is a 
technology, 
not a religion or philosophy.  Joining a cryonics organization should be a 

practical decision, not a religious one.  It's like health insurance.  Alcor has
a number of suspension members who are religious and least a couple of the 

patients (possibly more) who were active in their religions.  CI probably has 
the 
same experience.

All religious people and all religious groups are not alike.  While 

evangelical religious groups have been at the back of the opposition to stem 
cell 

technology, many less conservative (and larger) church groups in America have 
been 
in complete support of stem cell research.  I am sure that members of some 

very conservative religious groups will be hostile to cryonics, but that does 
not 
mean that we turn this into a religious issue for everyone.

Blood transfusions for most people are a medical decision, not a religious 
one.  Just because a couple of religious groups oppose blood transfusions or 
other medical treatment for themselves does not mean that doctors turn blood 
transfusions into a religious debate for everyone.

Bob Ettinger's point was not that religions are good or bad, right or wrong.  
He was saying that there is no benefit for cryonics to debate those issues as 
part of cryonics, and some small potential for harm.  I understand that 

sometimes someone like Rudy has just read something interesting or feels that he

achieved awareness and wants to share it.  I don't get too worried about that.
Many of us are friends here and it is normal to share with friends.

But I really think that a debate on the truth or falsity of religion doesn't 
fit well here.

Steve Bridge
For the record -- I am non-religious, but am married to a Catholic woman.  

While I don't see any Catholic rush to join cryonics organizations, I have also
seen no Catholic opposition to cryonics.  Three different priests have told me 
that they didn't see cryonics as opposed to Catholicism or even as a 

religious question.  I don't see a gain in forcing cryonics to be in opposition 
to 
Catholicism.

   


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